


This Love Will Carry You Home

by KyeAbove



Series: The Reinforcement Of Agony AU [88]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Dad Henry, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Child Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-06 23:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13422096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: Henry takes Timmy back to the safehouse.





	This Love Will Carry You Home

~October ?, 1963~

* * *

 

“You’re going home with me.”

Timmy looked at Henry, and his body language showed all too well his confusion.

“Not 'outside the studio' home but I have this place that I share with two others.” Henry still couldn't believe he considered the safehouse home. He'd been kicked out of his small apartment when he couldn't make rent, and he was a friend's couch short of homeless. So really, the safehouse was the closest thing he had to a home.

Timmy looked eager at the thought of it becoming his home too.

“Do you remember Sammy Lawrence?”

Timmy didn't look so eager now.

“I’m not sure if that’s still left over from before or you had some encounters with his ‘Prophet’ personality.” Henry chuckled a little at Timmy’s so-so gesture. “Well, the Ink Demon sent him back to the puddles for talking too much, and the ink didn't want him back, so it spit him back at me..." It was a little more complicated than that, but Henry figured the short version was good for now. "He’s…better. Saved my life a few times now.”

Timmy made a ‘continue’ gesture, but Henry shook his head.

“You don't need to be burdened by my pain.” Henry placed a hand on Timmy’s shoulder. “You've got enough to deal with.”

Timmy nodded, and made an almost chirping sound.

“So, I live with Sammy, and do you remember someone named Wally Franks?”

Timmy shook his head for no, which was odd, since Henry had seen the two interacting before. Maybe Timmy's memory was a bit splotchy. But at least he seemed to remember more than most of the people Henry had encountered.

“Neither does Wally most of the time. The Ink Machine turned him into a Boris, and so far his lucid moments are few and far between.”

The most recent moment of lucidity had been when Henry had come home to see Boris sweeping. Humming a familiar tune. After those minutes his lucidity disappeared, but for those few minutes he'd been Wally Franks once more.

Henry hoped one day that lucidity would never go away.

Henry wished he knew the cause for lucidity. Or the lack of it. What made most of the Searchers ragging monsters, with the exceptions of swollen Searchers, and Timmy? How could Wally sometimes remember but then suddenly not?

Sammy was the clue, being the only one ever released by the ink. Even knowing that, Henry could not find the answer.

“We should get going before any of the others show up again.” Henry said, standing up. Timmy hunched. “You recognize them, don't you?”

Timmy nodded.

“We’ll find a way to save them. I swear.”

Timmy wrote something on the floor.

**VERNON**

“You miss him most. The real him.”

Timmy nodded, sniffling.

One thing good about Joey Drew Studios was that it had been quite equal opportunity for its time. There was a general atmosphere of purposeful ignorance, if not acceptance. Henry had seen the subtle glances and smiles. Known why Timmy and Vernon lived together, and no doubt others had too. There was just never a reason to bring it up.

Henry wanted to say he related. That he missed the real Joey Drew, who dreamed of great things but never expected to get that far. Not this monster that replaced him.

Instead, Henry held his hand out, much in the Sammy had when he’d broken down in front of that cutout.

Timmy reached out to take it.

“Can you walk?”

Timmy used Henry's hand to pull himself up, but immediately wobbled and fell.

“That's a no. We’ll work on that.”

Henry crouched down again, dissolving his axe into an arm band.

“Get on my back. I think at this point you're not too old for piggyback rides.” Timmy compiled, and although the Searcher was heavy, Henry wasn't going back on a promise.

Henry stood up, and Timmy leaned into him. Henry smiled, a little content, a little sad.

Henry and Linda only had one child, Felix, but he’d died as a toddler, and that sadness had built up over two decades and lead to their divorce.

Despite many of the animators already being into their twenties just as Henry was at the time, they had been _his_. In many ways, he’d lost out on the bond of fatherhood.

So even though Timmy was heavy, Henry did not complain.

Luckily, Henry hadn’t strayed too far from the safehouse, and with the rewiring and improvement Wally made made to the area, everything was well lit.

Henry stood in front of the door, wondering how he’d explain this to Sammy. Wally wouldn't care much. Short of bringing ‘Alice’ or the Ink Demon home, Wally wouldn't care at all.

“Knock four times, Timmy.” Henry couldn't do it while supporting Timmy.

After the fourth knock, Henry heard the creek of the lever, and the door creaked

The door pulled up to reveal Sammy. Sammy stared at Timmy, and Timmy stared back. Sammy then looked to Henry for an explanation, his hazel eyes narrowed.

“This is Timmy Collier. One of my animators.”

“Are you sure of that?” Sammy asked.

“He spelled his name. I’m not sure many Searchers can even draw a straight line.” Sammy considered this, and then stepped aside.

“Fair enough.”

Henry and Timmy entered the safehouse before the door automatically closed again. Timmy looked around the common area, and subtly flinched when he saw Wally stacking cards.

“I know. You spend all that time animating Boris frame by frame, and then there he is! But I assure you, he’s really Wally Franks.”

Timmy grumbled.

“It is pretty unfair, yes.”

Henry lowered Timmy to the ground, where Sammy inspected him further.

“How much do you think he remembers? Just his name?”

“Timmy was acknowledging much of what I said. He also spelled his lover’s name. As well, he remembers you.”

Sammy blushed, embarrassed.

“The Prophet?” Sammy asked, like that had been a separate person and not just a deranged version of himself. It was a rather touchy subject.

Timmy held up two fingers.

“That means…what, exactly?”

“He seems to recall you thirty years ago and the Prophet.” Henry cut in.

“I don't like that.” Sammy muttered, but then he smiled at Timmy, genuinely. “But that means you know I was ink recently enough. I remember how every part of my being was crawling. But then I was sent back to the masses, the screaming, and then…I’m this. I can't explain how, but there is a way to return to humanity.”

Henry smiled, grateful for Sammy's kindness on the matter.

“Well, Timmy. You’ve been Sammy approved.” Henry gestured around them. “Welcome home.”


End file.
